Using Search Analytics to Uncover Known Unknowns

“There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don’t know.” – United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

Let’s focus on the second sentence “There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know.” One of those things we know we don’t know is what exactly visitors are typing into our site search box.

We’ve all searched on a site, come up empty handed and then abandoned the site for a competitor. Site search data is equally if not more important than the data that is easily captured by consumer purchases, such as name, address, and products purchased. You know what your customers are buying from you, but what are they searching for on your site that you don’t offer? Knowing this information could lead to additional revenue and increase the bottom line of your company.

Using Search Analytics software or through manually mining logs generated by your site, you can identify site searches that are either not fulfilled, or are misdirected. Providing that information to customers is a direct path to fulfilling additional customer needs and capturing customers who would otherwise purchase elsewhere.

For some direct-to-consumer business models, this may mean expansion of physical product offerings. For example, customers of a company selling organic coffee beans might also be conducting a site search for upscale mugs, which could be a vertical sales opportunity.

For business-to-business companies analysis may open up horizontal markets. Consider this example: A law firm using Measured Search analytics platform finds that many searches are looking for legal assistance on human resource-related issues. Your firm specializes in workers’ compensation cases. The searches come up blank. You see that customers leaving your site most often go to one competitor that offers comprehensive legal services with greater depth of services. Ongoing analysis and trends may uncover benefits of creating business partnerships, or bringing on new hires specializing in HR.

Search data collection and analysis is both a protective and a growth measure. Signup with with SearchStax to know exactly what your users are typing in your search box or reach out to us for more information about what your business may be missing.